Eminence Online

Let's face it: Square Enix has milked the success of this game. But even so, there's one thing they haven't done, something they've done for many other installments of the series: record an orchestral album dedicated to the game. To date, only four songs from this mammoth RPG have had orchestral arrangements. Three appeared on the oft-maligned Reunion album, which is a best-of album with three beautiful orchestral arrangements tacked on: Aerith's Theme, One-Winged Angel, and FFVII Main Theme. Wonderful as these songs are, the rest of the album was rehashed material. It wasn't worth a full purchase. Beyond that, the only song from the game to receive orchestral arrangement was "Opening ~ Bombing Mission," which has appeared on a variety of albums, most of which were recordings of live performances. Again, it's an interesting arrangement, but why there isn't a dedicated orchestral album for the game is beyond my comprehension. And if, for some reason, Square Enix doesn't want to do it, they could outsource it to another group. And if they're crazy enough to assert that there aren't enough strong, memorable melodies (which is a falsehood), they could pull even further from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus: there's enough to go around! 

Now I know what you're thinking: "Haruhi Suzumiya, really? The one with that silly opening dance sequence and the sugar-coated vocal performance?" Yes, and I do mean it. To date, the soundtracks released for the Haruhi Suzumiya TV animation have mostly been vocal singles, as well as one BGM-centric original soundtrack, and a radio drama. There was also a live concert DVD released in the summer of 2007. However, there's a good opportunity for an orchestral concert event. When you think about the silliness of the anime, remember that there are also serious moments, and serious music that accompanies it. And let's not forget the success of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) orchestral albums, and the amount of humor packed into those games. It's worth noting, that portions of many classical symphonic pieces are used in the anime, and could thus be performed in the concert. For example, Evangelion used classical pieces and worked it into their two disc live concert album. In Haruhi Suzumiya, pieces from Tchaikovsky, Ravel, and other classical composers are placed in the anime. It's chock full with performances of these pieces, interspersed with music written for the anime. It would be perfect. Silly, but perfect. 

Publisher 2K Games hit it big with developer Irrational Games' FPS, BioShock. A free, digital-only release featuring Garry Schyman's orchestral work for the game was given to the public in 2007. But let's not forget the roots of the series from which BioShock derives. Its spiritual predecessors, System Shock and System Shock II, are some of the scariest and most memorable PC games in the history of the medium. Neither game has had "official" soundtrack releases, original or arranged. But there are a lot of tense, powerful musical themes packed into those two games. Technically, I'd be okay with a full "Shock" orchestral album. They could reuse Schyman's BioShock work, and then throw in additional arrangements from the two prior System Shock titles.

Nintendo has been very selective with which franchises they emphasize for their musical qualities. To date, it seems only Mario and Zelda have been given the red carpet treatment, with albums like Mario & Zelda Big Band Live giving full-scale, large-ensemble performances for the masses of fans to enjoy. But what about dear old Metroid? Generally, in terms of official album releases, Metroid has gotten the short end of the stick. An extremely rare soundtrack was printed over a decade ago for Super Metroid, and there is also a Metroid Prime/Fusion double disc OST in existence thanks to publisher Scitron. But the closest thing to orchestral arrangements this series has ever had appears in the various Smash Bros games. And, frankly, this series deserves better. Fan-made arrangements suggest that Metroid music is best suited to rock bands and electric guitars (see "Metroid Metal" project, or any number of YouTube videos). However, there's no question that among the hundreds of songs Kenji Yamamoto has written for the Metroid series, there are plenty that would work for an orchestral setting. The much-coveted Game Music Concert 4 album (from 1994) had a three-piece medley from Super Metroid, and these arrangements could be re-used in a live performance if given permission. And think about all the beautiful songs, be it the ambient "Phendrana Drifts" from Metroid Prime, or the original "Brinstar" music from Super Metroid. These melodies would sound great coming from a full symphony orchestra! 

Known in Japan as "Biohazard," Capcom's Resident Evil series has some of the most powerful, mood-altering music ever created for games. And it needs to be that way, considering the nature of the survival horror genre. So why hasn't Capcom taken advantage of this amazing music and released some orchestral arrangements? Actually, they have. To date, two orchestral albums have been released. One was made exclusively for the first game in the series, and the other album covers music for Resident Evil 1 through 3. That latter album was released in 1999. Now, a full decade later, we have yet to see any orchestral arrangements for Code Veronica, Zero, 4, or the newly-released Resident Evil 5. Granted, orchestral recordings exist on the original soundtrack, but a full, live-performance orchestral rendition of this music hasn't happened. What's up with that?

Composer Motoi Sakuraba doesn't shy away from arranging his own work. Unfortunately, his idea of an arrangement is a drum-and-bass heavy rock group, with big keyboard (organ) solos to match. Sakuraba is gaming's king of prog-rock, and more power to him for that. However, the original compositions for the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series are fit for more than mere prog-rock arrangements. Once again, Square Enix is sitting on an aural gold mine. If they really wanted to dig deep, Sakuraba and an orchestrator could create a full orchestra album for each series. But, to make things easier, I'm willing to take a generic "tri-Ace orchestra" album. Just give me a concert I can attend where an orchestra performs "We Form In Crystals" (Star Ocean 2 ending theme), and I'll be satisfied.

The pinnacle of fantasy anime made big waves in Japan and North America. There have also been games (mostly RPGs) released from this classic anime/manga franchise. But the anime has some of the most memorable themes. And I'm not talking about the TV series "Chronicles of the Heroic Knight." I want a live orchestral concert with music from the 13 OVA episodes. Even though the composers (Akino Nii, Mitsuo Hagita) aren't as well-known as the TV series composers (Yoko Kanno, Kaoru Wada), the epic nature of the OVA's music would sound great at a live orchestral event. But then, if someone really wanted to tack on music from the TV series, I guess I could live with that too.

If you don't know what Touhou is, you need to start by educating yourself. Once you're done learning about this fanbase-driven shoot-em-up series filled with all sorts of fanmade "doujin" content, you'll quickly realize the value of a group like Eminence (though I really don't care who does it) tackling this project. Nearly 200 soundtracks are listed on VGMdb for the Touhou series, and the vast majority of them are fanmade soundtracks for fanmade versions of the games. This goes to show one important point: getting permission to do an orchestral concert for the music from Touhou wouldn't be too difficult. What would be difficult is arranging the synth-heavy music to work for an orchestra. But stranger and more difficult things have been done by orchestrators. So I say, bring it on!

Everyone recognizes the power of the music in this series. The original soundtracks for the three main installments have reached both sides of the Pacific. Concerts have been put on with extensive medleys from Marty O'Donnell's fantastic scores for these games. But frankly, I've had it with mere medleys. This series is worthy of having a full night's concert devoted to it, and a CD/DVD publication to follow. Why hasn't it happened? I don't know, but I can only assume it's because people are content with having these 5 or 10 minute medleys to satisfy their Halo music craving. But the source material is rich. O'Donnell and Salvatori need to sit down together and do something big -something that goes on for a full hour- instead of just sourcing their work out to Video Games Live, PLAY!, and other concert series.

Much like HALO, Castlevania has been privy to medley performances. Video Games Live did a guitar-centric performance. And that's great! But what about a full, hour-long orchestral concert? It would be awesome. To my own knowledge, as a self-proclaimed VGM expert, the only album to even come close to what I desire is the ultra-rare "Dracula New Classic," which has sold for inordinate amounts of money on eBay ($300 seems to be the standard going rate, but it's sold for more or less). The series is packed with so much good music, from a large group of composers -including one of my favorites, Michiru Yamane- it wouldn't be hard to get together the most orchestra-friendly pieces to create a full concert. I'm hoping Konami, wonderful as they are in doing small-scale ensemble arranges, will "see the light" and go all out with a full orchestra for their beloved series. And if they want to outsource, we all know that there are plenty of great places to go to get a good orchestra to perform the music. I wouldn't be surprised if guest arrangers jumped at this opportunity as well.